How Far Has AI Technology Come In Video Games?

Artificial Intelligence has come a long way and it has become an inseparable part of video games. We can’t even begin to imagine games like Grand Theft Auto V without intelligent pedestrians walking around and insulting us if we just bump into them or try to stalk them.

But Artificial Intelligence isn’t really a new concept, we have been playing games with basic AI that dates back decades. Games like Snow Bros, Road Rage or even Pacman had some basic AI that made these games quite exciting, not to mention one of the most iconic titles of our childhood.

However, we are yet to harness the real potential of AI in video games. But how far has AI technology come in video games? And more importantly, how far do we have to go?

Now if we talk about AI in general, we use it all the time, be it the autonomous cars or Alexa sitting on our tables. But this type of AI is actually pretty different from the AI that we see in the games, it is actually self-learning. Autonomous cars, for instance, are using self-learning AI that makes rapid changes by sensing the changes in the environment.

Video Games on the other hand, set some limitations to AI. It isn’t actually self-learning, but it follows certain rules set by the programmers that give the illusion of the pedestrian, for instance, to be smart.

While it actually just follows a somewhat complex set of conditions that triggers a certain action from the NPC. You don’t actually see an NPC in GTA 5 remembering how you tried to hit him with a car after some time. Haven’t tried GTA V yet? Consider visiting Gamecamp and grab yourself a GTA V cd key for the best price available.

They are basically just switching their behaviors or states from being “normally walking pedestrians” to a “cautious guy that needs to avoid you for a while before totally forgetting what happened”.

And it’s going to stay this way for a long time, as self-learning AI in video games can actually be unpredictable and end up crashing the game. For instance, if NPCs in Red Dead Redemption 2 were using self-learning AI, they would learn from your actions in the past and eventually take you as a threat even if you don’t do anything bad in front of them, just because they have seen you committing crimes in the past and they don’t know any better.

It’d be a total disaster for the game developers if the characters in their games were to just make their own decisions. Games are supposed to be somewhat predictable, if not for the players, definitely for the ones who created them, at least.